The present invention is directed to nonlethal weapons adapted to cause an electric current to flow through a remote biological target for the purpose of incapacitating the same.
The general concept of a weapon adapted to deliver a nonlethal quantity of electrical current to a remote target for incapacitating the target is both simple and well-known to the art. The basic components of such weapons include a housing for maintaining a reservoir of an electrical conductor, means for ejecting or otherwise moving an electrical conductor into contact with the intended target, and means for applying a potential difference across the electrical conductor for completing a circuit with the intended target for delivering electrical current thereto.
Notwithstanding the existence of such devices in the prior art, each of the known devices includes a significant drawback. A first type of known device uses one or more liquid streams to make electrical contact with the target. Such a device is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,708. The difficulties with this type of device are that ionic conduction (electrolytes) provides inadequate electrical conductivity; liquid beams will break up into droplets after a short range due to capillary instability; large beam diameters are required for reasonable conductivity thereby decreasing the range of the weapon; large beam diameters require that the weapon include a reservoir sufficiently large to accommodate a large quantity of fluid thereby limiting the portability of the weapon; and the target is drenched with liquid which might short circuit the target.
The second type of device, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,463, discloses a similar weapon in which two (2) small projectiles are fired at a target. Each projectile is attached to a fine conductive wire for delivering current to the target. The major drawback of this type of device is that it provides for only a single shot without reloading. The weapon is of small value if being used against more than a single assailant, if one of the projectiles misses the target, or if the target is able to remove one or both of the wires before the electric current is delivered. It is additionally noted that the projectiles are fired with a nitro powdered charge, thereby making the weapon a firearm, subjecting it to all applicable restrictions on firearms. Finally, because the solid wires are fired from a reel, the "shape memory" of the coiled wires may impede the range and accuracy of the device
U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,292 illustrates a similar type device which employs mercury, a metal which is liquid at ambient temperature, as the electrical conductor. The drawbacks of such apparatus are that mercury is a toxic material, and the liquid beams of mercury will break up into droplets after propelled a short distance from the weapon due to capillary instability. Other disadvantages of the specific device disclosed in this patent are that the weapon is designed with the capability to kill; the electrical contact to the beams of the conductive medium is made inductively by windings around the exhaust nozzles; and the device is designed only to fire a single shot without reloading because the beams of conductive material cannot be turned off.
A fourth type of weapon is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,390. This patent discloses a mechanical derivation of a cattle prod, in which two shocking electrodes are spring biased and selectively urged forward several feet when activated. The major drawback of this device is that due to mechanical considerations, the effective range of the device is small, and therefore the operator must be in close proximity to the target in order to effectively deliver an electrical current.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for delivering an electrical current to a remote biological target, said method and apparatus employing materials having high electrical conductivity and being capable of operating at relatively long ranges, firing a plurality of times at the same or different targets without reloading, and not requiring that a large reservoir of conductive material be maintained within the weapon. As discussed herein, this object is achieved by employing a metallic or metallic alloy conductor, which is solid at ambient temperature, but which may be propelled in liquid form from a heated reservoir of the weapon and solidifies as a result of exposure to ambient temperature after it has been ejected from the weapon at the target. As will be apparent from the foregoing discussion, the method and apparatus of the present invention utilizes the advantages of both liquid and solid conductors but eliminates the drawbacks associated with each.